In the past two years, Chicago youth have been linked with countless violent acts and poor academic performance.  However, there are groups of Chicago Public School students who do not fit this mold, and are striving to have successful lives in academics and beyond.  We want you to see and read about them here.

Our names are Anthony Curtis and Darci Keyser, and we currently teach at a Chicago Public School, Phoenix Military Academy. We believe that all students, no matter their background, their economic status, or race, they can be successful in post secondary education and beyond. This desire to motivate our students inspired us to start two mentoring programs for our students: the Brotherhood and Sisterhood.

In a school, where more than 95% of our students reside in low-income households and receive free and reduced lunches, many of our students, especially our African-American and Latino male students, do not see college as a realistic option. We all know that high school graduation, college retention, school violence, and identity are ongoing problems for our young men and women. For many years, CPS has had many initiatives and projects that have helped with this problem. However, Darci and I wanted to start a program that would personally affect and influence the young men and young women at Phoenix Military Academy. Our mentoring programs titled, the Brotherhood: Brothers Making A Difference and the Sisterhood: Strong Young Women United As One, started with a few students and two adults passionate for change.

The Brotherhood’s mission is to empower the young males at Phoenix Military Academy to be the men they can be in academics, character, respect for themselves, and consequently be better role models. We do this through bi-monthly meetings, team building activities, field trips, college trips, fellowship activities, community service, and sessions where we just sit around and have "real talk" discussions about prevalent young male issues. We sometimes have guest speakers, and we are currently in the process of writing our own book for other young men.  This writing project is inspired by  Hill Harper’s book, Letters to a Young Brother. This project is helping the young men see reading as a life changing and active experience for greater knowledge and power. We also partner with Dr. Shelby Wyatt at Kenwood Academy and the CPS Male Initiative Project to encourage positive male relationships amongst CPS male students. We organize and attend two conferences every year in partnership with DePaul University, where students are able to discuss prevalent issues and participate in various activities and sessions for their well being.  Our next Male Initiative Project conference is Friday, Feb. 6, 2010.

In conjunction to the male mentoring program, the Sisterhood, Strong Young United As One established a vision to provide lifelong opportunities and support for social, intellectual, and spiritual development by bringing women together to positively impact our communities. This program does similar activities as well, but they also participate in events like Hip Hop Yoga, Girls Leadership Summits, and community service projects including two cancer walks and a breast cancer awareness day. They also have guest speakers that promote women empowerment, and also read Hill Harper’s book, Letters to a Young Sister. The Sisterhood also partners with O Ambassadors and the Girls World Exchange, and this allows the young women to connect and learn from young women in Kenya. Through O Ambassadors, the Sisterhood also organized a third world awareness day called “A Day In My Shoes”, which allowed students to trade American lunches for third world lunches. Darci and I truly believe that our youth are the generation who will “shake the world”, and we recently organized a fundraiser at a downtown Chicago venue to raise awareness and build partnerships for our programs. 

In the media, they are countless of amounts of reports of violence and low academic performance in Chicago Public Schools. We wanted to inform the world of two positive programs and a movement happening in Chicago Public Schools that is inspiring young people to be the change they wish to see in their community and beyond.